บท 226: Bloody conclusion.
The enemy he was currently facing almost perfectly countered all of Liang Chen's laws, his lightning, wind, poison, rot, death, all of them were practically useless in this fight. So he discarded them, tossed them aside without hesitation and focusing fully on his two remaining laws, the strongest and most energy-consuming ones, time and void. They were the strongest but also the hardest to use, the sheer amount of energy they drained also made it difficult to use them in longer battles. This was especially so for the law of the void, any mistake with it could lead to catastrophic consequences.
But Liang Chen didn't care, he knew himself well. Ever since the start, his path could only have been called suicidal and foolish. Even the very first step of his cultivation journey, diving in Demonic beast blood as a weak child with no cultivation, was nothing short of suicidal and insane, practically all of his cultivation choices had been like that. The same held true for his battles, the number of battles he engaged in where he didn't engage in something self-destructive was far lower than the ones where he did do something self-destructive. Had it not been for his great luck with bloodlines and cultivation technique, he would have become crippled or outright died long ago, maybe even as far back as when he took that first step.
But he hadn't died and he hadn't become crippled. Time and time again he emerged victorious, time and time again he emerged stronger than he was before. And it all stacked up over time, added up to shape him into what he was now, a monster that could afford to fight in a self-destructive manner, a monster that could freely trade injuries and attacks with people who had higher cultivation.
And because he knew this, Liang Chen kicked off the ground and shot through the domain, whizzing past the stone trees as he headed directly for the blue-eyed and black-haired Bao Shan. The pressure that the domain exerted on him instantly shrank as Liang Chen unleashed his law of the void in a very thin layer around his own body, giving his speed a decent increase.
But every area within the domain was under Bao Shan's control, it was like an extension of his body, so he could still determine Liang Chen's location no matter how fast he moved. His eyes focused closely on Liang Chen, countless stone trees rising up and stretching their sharp branches at Liang Chen while also radiating different levels of increased gravity to throw him off.
But Liang Chen paid no attention to the trees piercing straight at him, his steps landing on one of the shadows that stretched out from one of the trees. His figure immediately vanished into the shadow and dodged the branches, Bao Shan's pupils shrinking drastically. The muscles on his arms tensed as he spun around with all his might, a faint crimson light flashing within both of his greataxes as their speed suddenly increased drastically. This was an ability that all Bloodwind Weapons had, it was one of their basest functions and it was great for catching enemies off-guard.
His axes and body spun around at such speed that they nearly instantly reached a black orb that had appeared behind him, the tip of a spear poking out from it. His axes crashed into the orb and caused the speartip to shatter, his pupils shrinking even further, a Bloodwind Weapon would not shatter that easily. And he was immediately proved correct, his axes effortlessly slicing through the black orb and dissipating it.
But as the orb dissipated, he sensed Liang Chen appear within the domain once more. His figure rose up from Bao Shan's own shadow, just behind his still spun around body, his spear already stabbing out with a faint grey light flashing within it. The grey light coated the speartip and caused it to vibrate faintly, a few cracks extending through the surrounding air wherever the speartip moved. These cracks didn't form in space but rather within the domain itself, a sign that it was taking damage greater than what it could sustain.
Bao Shan sensed the greater danger coming from behind him and gave a heavy stomp of his foot, a wave of immense gravity unfurling from his body. But this wave of gravity didn't actually push down on Liang Chen like the one unleashed by the trees did, it was reversed and thus pushed him upward.
The veins on his arm bulged as he forced his spear to remain steady, his feet almost immediately losing touch with the ground as a result of him focusing on keeping his attack straight. And the reason he could focus on his attack was quite simply that he wasn't alone. His own shadow rose up and coiled around his legs, quickly dragging him down and resisting the reversed gravity so that his attack could continue on with minimal disturbance.
Bao Shan grit his teeth upon seeing his first strategy fail, the muscles on his shoulders and back tensing as a crimson light once again flashed within his two greataxes. He spun around like a gyroscope with his axes placed against each other, the sharp edges clashing with the handle of Liang Chen's spear while the speartip was only a few centimetres from his chest.
But a strange sensation assaulted him when his axes touched Liang Chen's spear, his arms suddenly seemed to move far slower than the rest of his body, the dissonance actually causing him to feel nauseous. And this short second where his arms moved slower than the rest of his body was enough for Liang Chen's spear to reach him, its course only diverted slightly thanks to the axes.
His speartip reached Bao Shan's right shoulder and cut a deep gash into it, actually completely tearing out and pulverizing the bones within the shoulder, causing his right arm to fall to the ground. Liang Chen then sank back into the darkness that coiled around his legs, Bao Shan's arms, or arm now, finally returning to moving at its proper speed, something that caused him to stumble slightly as he had shifted his strength around to accommodate for the slowness of his arms.
Liang Chen appeared outside of the domain again, his face almost as pale as paper, his breathing somewhat ragged while beads of sweat ran down his forehead and some blood ran down his left arm from two burst blood vessels. Bao Shan grit his teeth so strongly that some of them cracked, quickly picking up his lost arm and placing it against the stump of his shoulder, holding it in place with a small field of gravity while he popped several pills into his mouth.
He was a body cultivator, so while losing an arm was a bit of trouble he should be able to quickly reattach it right now by using his Fiendgod Essence and some pills. But after swallowing all the pills, his expression actually only sank further, his pupils glancing at the still bloody stump that remained of his shoulder. The wound wasn't healing. No matter how much energy he poured into it, it seemed to be completely blocked up and unmoveable, he couldn't even stem the bleeding. His guess, and fear, was quickly proven correct by Liang Chen, whose face had regained a bit of colour.
"There's no point, that wound is one that will never heal, it has been eternally locked in its current state of time."
His words were a bit of an exaggeration, a stronger cultivator or a stronger pill would definitely be able to break through the layer of time coating the wound. Even Bao Shan would be able to do it after spending a bit of time, which was why Liang Chen spoke up, to stop him from testing it too much. Bao shan's eyes turned even more solemn upon hearing Liang Chen's statement, his dark gaze moving between his bloody shoulder and Liang Chen's weapon.
"The law of wounds, or is it the law of sealing? No, looking at what you did to my arm, is it the law of speed? And that attack just now, that should be the second ability of the Bloodwind Weapons, the one only available to those of the Lord rank or higher. I haven't heard of anyone with a grey Bloodwind Weapon before, especially not amongst the known Lord ranks... Are you the newly ascended Wrathful Scourge Lord?"
Liang Chen didn't know it, but whenever a new Lord rank was achieved on the Multiverse Bloodwind List, a notification would be sent out to all the other Bloodwind Codes, notifying them of the birth of the new ruler. It had been quite some time since the Multiverse Bloodwind List received a new Lord so the newly ascended Lord was a rather hot topic of conversation.
Bao Shan didn't have concrete proof that Liang Chen was this newly ascended Lord, but he felt that it was the most reasonable guess after going over everything that he did know. Liang Chen didn't give Bao Shan any response, his breathing already back to normal while his face had lost nearly all signs of paleness. Bao Shan's pupils finally shrunk until they were the size of pins when she saw this and felt the once again vigorous energy rushing through Liang Chen's body. He hadn't popped a single pill or the like, so there was no way his expended energy should restore this quickly. As such, Bao Shan couldn't help but question in a somewhat unbelieving manner, receiving a short and simple reply from Liang Chen.
"This recovery speed... Just what sort of monster are you?"
"I'm not a monster, I am the storm."
Liang Chen cultivated in a modified version of a previous Universal Hearts body cultivation method, practically every inch of his body had become a fusion of some of his elements. As such, he could restore his lost energy and wounds by absorbing the elements that now composed his body, an act he had already done once before when he was fighting Qian Liao back on Tripartite God planet.
There wasn't any water or lightning around for him to absorb, and absorbing time to restore himself was far more time-consuming than he would like, but there was plenty of wind all around him. Of course, this type of restoration wasn't perfect, Liang Chen's achievements in the technique were still too shallow. There were also other factors that impeded his healing, like the two burst blood vessels in his left arm. They were a result of his blood vessels being unable to contain the law of void that flooded through them, and wounds created by the law of the void were far harder to heal than normal wounds, they would need quite a bit more time.
This was the reason he had left Bao Shan's domain and had remained standing in place for a bit while Bao Shan tried to heal his wound and questioned Liang Chen, it was all to restore some of his lost energy. And now he had restored a good bit of energy so he no longer saw a need to let Bao Shan continue restoring his own energy, his feet kicking off the earth as he shot back into the domain.
His speed had decreased slightly since his energy wasn't fully restored, but it was more than enough for what he was planning. Bao Shan looked directly at the charging Liang Chen, dropping his right arm to the ground and tightly grabbing onto his remaining axe. He raised the axe as high as he could, pouring every last drop of his energy into it as even the domain around him shrank and sank into the axe.
"Come, Nameless Lord, face my strongest technique and let's see who will survive! Descend, Core of the World Tree!"
The head of Bao Shan's axe warped as he uttered the name of the technique he had created in his youth. The axehead morphed into a one-meter wide orb that looked like it was made entirely out of bark, a few small sprouts sticking out from it and wriggling as if they were trying to break free from the orb.
Liang Chen glanced at the attack, which was on track to hit him the moment his own attack hit Bao Shan, but he didn't make any moves against it. And just as he and Bao Shan were right in front of each other and Liang Chen stabbed his spear forward, a pitch-black domain rose up all around the two men, Bao Shan's expression sinking drastically.
This domain had shown up earlier and heavily weakened him for a short second so that Liang Chen could stop his own attack before it hit the onlookers so he knew that the domain was very dangerous. But it hadn't shown up again after that so he assumed that it required too much energy to be used again in quick succession, he truly hadn't been expecting it to show up now.
A quick move of his pupils revealed the truth to him, some of the corpses that had been scattered throughout the area earlier had vanished. From the looks of it, the beast creating this domain had gorged on the corpses to rapidly restore its energy so that it could launch this domain again to catch him off guard.
And that was exactly what happened, he had poured his everything into the attack and wasn't ready for the domain, resulting in tendrils of black energy extending from his body and sinking into Liang Chen. His own strength started waning while Liang Chen's rose somewhat, now carrying the faint flavour of Bao Shan's own energy. Liang Chen took half a step to the side, Bao Shan's attack landing on his left shoulder while his own attack landed on the centre of Bao Shan's chest, just beneath his heart. Liang Chen ignored the pain coming from his entire left arm, a soft and slightly guttural voice leaking out from his throat.
"Fourth Step Pierces the Sparrow."
A soft light was instantly unleashed by Liang Chen's spear, piercing through Bao Shan's chest and continuing on into the distance while tearing a thin grey line through the air. A few grey, nearly white grains of sand fell out from the line and landed on the ground, the earth around them immediately starting to lose colour and taking on a bone-like texture. The attack was filled with the law of the void and then augmented by the Dragon King's Six Steps, the end result was that it actually tore open a very small gate directly to the void, even allowing some of the sand present within the void to arrive here.
But neither the gate nor the sand remained for long, the gate was unable to maintain itself and collapsed after half a second, the grains of sand evaporating a short second later. But that second and a half the grains of sand had remained here was enough to permanently alter the plain in front of the white pyramid, a few spots of bone-like earth that were nearly 40-metre wide remaining where the sand had been.
As the one who had been forced to suffer the brunt of the attack, Bao Shan was in a terrible state. A fist-wide hole had appeared in his solar plexus and was expanding at a visible pace, corroding and evaporating his entire body. Liang Chen was in a better state thanks to Yumao's domain, but his entire left arm and shoulder, as well as a bit of his back, were all pierced through by small branches and leaves that were actually growing out from within his own body.
Bao Shan's attack had left microscopic seeds within the arm that was hit by the attack, the seeds feeding on Liang Chen's energy to grow freely. Liang Chen was as white as paper as he looked at the disintegrating Bao Shan, doing his best to restore his energy while also halting the growth of the seeds in his arm. Bao Shan stood still and had already let go of his axe, touching the hole in his torso with his remaining arm, an act that resulted in his fingers starting to disintegrate. Looking at his own approaching death, a weak and defeated laughter escaped him.
"Haha, no wonder Senior Sparrow so resolutely decided to abandon everything here, what a monster you are. But you shouldn't be too happy, you Nameless Lord, the universe will never accept an existence like you, this law of yours is far too scary for it to allow your existence."
Bao Shan couldn't help but look at Liang Chen with some interest after he finished talking, he had never before even heard of a law like this. It had torn open what seemed to be a gate to some unknown place and brought forth those corruptive grains of sand, it was a law that seemed far too sinister and evil. Liang Chen spat out a mouthful of blood, a few branches growing out of the blood as he continued to force the seeds out of his body, not denying Bao Shan's statement.
"I don't need the universe to accept me or allow my existence, all I need is for it to fear me so that it will listen."
Bao Shan grimaced in the face of Liang Chen's arrogance, but the disintegration had already reached his lungs and heart so he was unable to utter any more words since life left his body. His disintegrating body collapsed to the ground, vanishing completely before his head could touch the earth.
Liang Chen let out a heavy breath and spat out some more blood after Bao Shan vanished, Yumao slithering out from his shadow and flying up to the top of Liang Chen's head. He curled up on his head like usual, his entire body so weak that he couldn't even keep himself balanced on top of Liang Chen's head.
Liang Chen remained standing in place for a bit to force out the last seeds lurking within his body, finally getting rid of the last branches and leaves that had broken out from his arm and back. He swallowed a few pills and then slowly walked over to the corpses that remained untouched after the grains of sand from the void fell into this world. He picked up as many corpses as he could, immediately using the Chaos King Technique on some of them to further increase the speed at which his wounds healed.
He had underestimated how useful Yumao would be in the fight so his current state was far better than what he expected it to be, he was expecting to end up unable to move or even unconscious after the fight. He would have been forced to rely on Yi Xue in that situation, but it luckily hadn't come to that so he could let out a soft breath of relief.
He restored his wounds and energy to an acceptable level and put away some of the corpses so that Yumao could feast on them when he had restored enough of his own energy to eat properly. He then helped Yumao remain balanced on top of his head using some wind and left the estate, the crowd of spectators silently moving aside to create a path for him. They had just seen him murder the governor of the city in what was basically single combat, their fear and awe prevented them from even speaking as he walked past them.
But as he started to vanish into the distance as he headed for the 9th District, a few of the people were no longer able to help themself. Some burst into tears, some dropped to their knees and others dipped into deep bows, loudly thanking Liang Chen for what he had done. The ones that thanked him were those who had suffered or lost people in the hands of the Tranquil Lake, the Golden Branch, or to the governor themselves. Liang Chen had personally torn out all three from the city and granted them revenge they could previously only dream of. To them, it was as if the tales they heard as a child had finally come true, sinners would be punished by the wrath of the heavens.
Liang Chen stopped momentarily upon hearing the words of gratitude but then quickly continued on his way, reaching the 9th District and the headquarters of the Tranquil Lake after three hours. Finding the headquarters of the Tranquil Lake wasn't hard, he just had to ask one of the people fleeing from the 9th District.
And when he finally reached the headquarters of the Tranquil Lake, a surprisingly normal-looking, if excessively large, square stone building, his fears were confirmed. Blood was pouring out from underneath the large wooden doors before he even opened them, opening them only resulted in a small tidal wave of blood pouring out. There was nothing but blood within the entire building, which was about 11 kilometres wide and 6 kilometres long.
The place where they should be keeping their slaves, the place where the workers should be resting, the training area for new recruits, everything was stained with blood and scraps of cloth. The Sky-Piercing Sparrow hadn't left a single person behind, no matter how low their rank within the organization might be. Not even the archives and other items within the building had been left intact, all trace of the Sky-Piercing Sparrow or the former acts of the Tranquil Lake had been erased. Liang Chen stood in the midst of the blood, which had yet to dry as most of the people working here had some attainments in cultivation, his gaze calm yet dark as his gaze swept the surroundings.
"Hide all you want, I will find you eventually. And then we'll see if the Sky-Piercing Sparrow can handle getting pierced."
Liang Chen turned around and left the building after he finished checking the last room, there was nothing left here so now all that remained was checking out the residence of the governor. Once he was done with that he could move on, he felt that he had already spent more than enough time in this city, despite only having been here for an exceedingly short amount of time.
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